According the the Philadelphia Daily News, Philadelphia 76ers head coach Maurice Cheeks is close to signing a contract extension. The Sixer’s new president and general manager Ed Stefanski is apparently pleased with Cheeks’ work since coming on as head coach in the 2005-2006 season. He is on the last year of his contract, which is worth about $3 million this year.
The other shoe finally dropped for the men’s basketball team.
The Owls snuck out of the Liacouras Center with back-to-back overtime victories against Massachussetts and Rhode Island earlier in the week, but didn’t have enough to hang with host Dayton Saturday afternoon. Temple lost to the Flyers, 77-66, at the University of Dayton Arena.
With the loss, the Owls (13-11 overall) dropped to 6-4 in the ever-tight Atlantic Ten Conference.
Next up for the Owls is a road matchup with Saint Bonaventure (7-16, 1-8 A-10) Wednesday at 7 p.m.
Read TTN’s game recap: Dayton flies past men’s basketball team
(Archived photo courtesy of TTN Photo Editor Neal Santos.)
How about a little love for Temple’s softball team. In what is being described as a huge upset, Temple beat No. 25 Oregon State 4-2 for its first victory of the season today.
The win came in the team’s third game of the Kajikawa Classic in Tempe, Ariz. The victory is Temple softball’s first over a Pac-10 school, which houses traditional softball powers. Temple now stands 1-4 against Pac-10 all time and 1-2 in the season.
First half, shmirst half.
For the second consecutive game, Temple proved that its OK to have a slow start to a game as long as you can frantically rally back in the final couple minutes of regulation and send the contest to overtime.
From there? It’s a piece of cake.
The Owls defeated visiting Rhode Island, 92-89, in overtime to secure back-to-back extra period wins. Temple defeated Massachusetts in overtime Sunday at the Liacouras Center. The Owls are 4-0 in overtime games this season.
Junior Dionte Christmas lead the Owls (13-10, 6-3 Atlantic Ten Conference) with 27 points, while senior Mark Tyndale scored 24 points, while grabbing a team-high nine rebounds and dishing out six assists.
The Owls also received an unexpected boost from junior Semaj Inge, who had a career-high-tying 17-point performance in 30 minutes off the bench.
The Owls will visit Dayton (16-7, 4-6) Saturday at 4 p.m.
Read TTN’s game story: “Men’s basketball team defeats Rhode Island for another overtime victory”
(Photo courtesy of TTN photographer Ron Davis)
Temple Owls lost to St. Joe’s yesterday 68-67 at the Liacouras Center. Over 10,045 people were in attendance at yesterday’s game. Feel a part of the action by viewing the audio slideshow.
Photos by Neal Santos.
Audio by Christopher George Wink.
The Grateful Dead has hosted 53 concerts at the Wachovia Spectrum – more concerts than any other performer. Now, the site where the landmark sits may be its graveyard.
Comcast Spectacor, the owner of the sports complex, announced yesterday plans for an entertainment complex to be built between the Wachovia Center and the Spectrum. One plan, which calls for a luxury hotel, would require the demolition of the Spectrum.
The building, which can seat more than 18,000, is now home to the Philadelphia Phantoms minor league hockey, Philadelphia Kixx soccer and Philadelphia Soul arena football.
Both would have to find new homes. The Phantoms could move to Camden or Atlantic City.
The Flyers and 76ers called the building home from 1967 to 1996 before moving to the Wachovia Center. The Flyers won their first Stanley Cup there in 1974, and the Sixers hosted many playoff and finals games inside, also.
The facility made headlines in September 2006 when the statue of Rocky Balboa was permanently removed from its site at the north side of the Spectrum to its permanent home at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Finalized plans for the entertainment complex are expected by the end of January. Preliminary drawings include a movie theater or a music hall.
Philadelphians mourned the loss of another beloved landmark in 2003 when Veterans Stadium, home to the Phillies and Eagles, was imploded.
In what she called the worst loss of her 8-year coaching career, Dawn Staley and the women’s basketball team had their score more than doubled by No. 6 Rutgets, in a 70-34 drubbing yesterday at the Louis Brown Athletic Center.
See game story here.
Conversely, on Dec. 27, Temple had good news, extending its Big 5 winning streak to 16, passing a previous mark held by St. Joseph’s in the early 1980s. The record stretched over five seasons, as reported by The Temple News.
All of that comes just a week after Staley was named one of seven to be honored in the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame as a member of the Class of 2008, according to the Virginia Pilot.
Staley, a North Philadelphia-native, graduated from the University of Virginia in 1993. In her four years, she had been the ACC Rookie of the Year, a three-time Kodak All-American and national Player of the Year twice. Under her leadership, the Cavaliers surged to three Final Four appearances.
As history tells, she went on to an illustrious Olympic and professional career and is likely to be known as one of the most successful women’s basketball players in the game’s early history. She started coaching at Temple in 2000, while still playing in the WNBA.
This recent most Rugets loss is likely a particular low point in that career.
As reported by The Temple News, Temple football coach Al Golden has withdrawn his name from consideration for the head coaching job at UCLA.
Here at Broad and Cecil, yesterday we made mention of Golden interviewing for the position, though he and Temple athletics had remained silent on the matter.
“I’m flattered to have been contacted about the coaching vacancy at UCLA,” Golden said in a university statement. “…However, we are on the brink of something truly special here at Temple.”
Still, some criticized Golden even taking the interview, noting it might lead recruits to doubt his interest in staying at Temple.
“Whether he gets the job at UCLA or not, the damage is already done,” Dave Weinraub, a former Temple player, wrote in a letter to The Philadelphia Inquirer. “What do you tell the kids on the team? You don’t have to be loyal to the program?”
Temple football coach Al Golden, largely credited for starting the long.. slow.. impossible process of returning the program to relevance, interviewed last Wednesday to fill the vacancy as the top man at UCLA football.
He led Temple to a 4-8 record this past season – 4-4 in the MAC conference – and has been cheered for it. Still, he has been roundly criticized by many Temple alumni for meeting about the UCLA job.
Most recently, Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub, a Temple football player between 1959 and 1961, wrote a letter to the editor to the Inquirer lamenting that even just a meeting about leaving could hurt Temple’s next recruiting class – to be signed beginning Feb. 6.
(Golden has replied that – corrected below) The possibility remains that he was just exploring his options and politely accepting the invitation from UCLA chancellor Gene Block, who was also at the University of Virginia while Golden was a defensive coordinator.
Whether the meeting could raise his profile in college football enough to help his work at Temple and not just lead to more distraction is yet to be seen.
(Corrected 12/26/07 4:24 p.m. EST: Al Golden has declined to comment on his interview, though some, including Inquirer writer Kevin Tatum, have mentioned the possibility that the meeting was based more on the Temple coach’s relationship with Block than a desire to leave his post.)
After a lengthy battle in which the Pennsylvania courts had to decide if “morale” was a good enough reason for colleges not to release salary data (it wasn’t), Joe Paterno’s salary has been revealed to be $512,664.
Just in case you were wondering, Temple’s Al Golden pulls in double what any other MAC coach makes: $575,000.
While these figures may seem high, some college’s pay their coaches in the millions with the highest paid coach being Nick Saban of Alabama who makes a cool $4 million.
